コラム：パリジェンヌの東京映画レポート！ - 第8回

第8回：ピクサーVSジブリ、どっちのレシピが好み？

Pixar vs Ghibli : the various recipes of dream production

Pixar Studio established itself as a leader in the world of animation movies, its successes following on : it released six movies after the creation of the Best Animation Film Oscar in 2001, all were prize-nominated and four won it. Hayao Miyazaki is not somebody who needs to be introduced: legendary Japanese filmmaker, famous mangaka and co-founder of Ghibli Studio, he is the one whose animation movies have an international popularity and make people dream of Japan all over the world. In the world of animated film, both are acknowledged masters. But are they comparable?

First, both apparently make movies for children, but the theaters are full with adults. It doesn’t (only) mean that adults deeply remain kids… Such movies also give a deeply thought representation of contemporary societies and mankind. The important place of women, simultaneously strong and weak, in Miyazayi’s movies made his friend Toshio Suzuki say he’s kind of a feminist. Miyazaki also belongs to the artists strongly influenced by the atomic bomb’s memory and wrenching weapons are recurrent in his work, likea denunciation. His characters often are morally ambiguous, nor totally good nor totally bad. For example, Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke is the perfect representation of the human eagerness for power, but she is also fair and nice when taking in lepers. At least, all Miyazaki’s movies show a heaven of peace, far from human civilization, in the supreme reign of wild nature. So he shows a lucid image of mankind and the dream of another world at the same time. Concerning Pixar, the atmosphere isn’t the same, but according its former artistic director John Lasseter, the movies focus on the personal development of their characters: the main character often ventures in the real world and the central aspect is the way he evolves.

The magic also have an important role in their movies. In the last Pixar film Up, the old Carl seems to live in the present America, but nobody is surprised to see his house flying thanks to balloons. And what about Toy Story and alive toys? In Miyazaki’s movies, it is more about traditional witchcraft: we’re used to see spirits, spells and talismans. A lot of magic items are drawn from Japanese believes and mythology: in Spirited Away, Chihiro can see dozens of mythological creatures, spirits, Yôkai…

(C)2001 二馬力・TGNDDTM

What about the technical aspect, the art of animation? Except for characters, who are voluntarily caricatured, Pixar’s drawings often are realistic, insomuch that we sometimes can hardly distinguish drawn landscape from photographs. On the contrary, Miyazaki gives the priority to traditional art: handmade drawing, paintbrushes, ink. Even he often balances digital and traditional technique, he still creates 2D movies whose pictures’ lines are obvious and contribute to their specific atmosphere. On the contrary, Up is the first 3D movie of Pixar and the studio will keep on improving this new technique.

At least, the music. Oddly enough, animation movies are not only a visual art and the music widely contributes to the pictures’ beauty. Miyazaki movies’ music is now systematically composed by Joe Hisaishi and his symphonic style has become one of their typical characteristics. As a pianist and a brilliant conductor, Hisaishi even gives concerts of pieces composed for Miyazaki. Pixar also have its regular pianist-composer, a rocker and jazzman called Randy Newman who composed the most famous airs of Pixar movies. A different inspiration, another style, but the same success with the public.

Thus, here are two recipes, with quite similar ingredients but for different results and tastes. However, they have one thing on common: both are worth sampling and savouring.

[抄訳]

常に世界中のアニメーションの最先端を走るピクサー。これまで6本の作品が米アカデミー賞長編アニメーション部門にノミネートされ、そのうちの4本が受賞という快挙を成し遂げています。一方、日本にも巨匠・宮崎駿率いるスタジオ・ジブリが存在し、ピクサーとジブリの製作するアニメーション映画は世界中から惜しみない喝采を浴びています。この2大アニメーション・スタジオをちょっと比較してみましょう。

まず、両者とも子供向けの映画を製作していると思われがちですが、実際は映画館は大人たちで溢れています。これは「最近の大人がいつまでたっても子供のままだから」というわけではなく、彼らの作品が現代社会に通じる普遍的なテーマを持っているからなのです。プロデューサーの鈴木敏夫が宮崎監督をフェミニストと呼ぶように、宮崎監督は強さと弱さを兼ね合わせた女性像を描くことに定評があり、なかでも戦争や武力行使への皮肉や警告を込めた作品が多いように思われます。しかし彼は勧善懲悪を避け、「もののけ姫」のエボシのように人間の持つ強欲さと優しさなど多面性を持つキャラクター描写に徹しています。一方のピクサーは、チーフ・クリエイティブ・オフィサーであるジョン・ラセターの言葉にもあるように、主にキャラクター個人の冒険や成長を描く作品群が特徴です。

そんなピクサーとジブリの共通点は、ストーリーの中で魔法の存在が大きいことです。ピクサー最新作の「カールじいさんの空飛ぶ家」では、現代アメリカで暮らすカールじいさんが風船で家を飛ばしても誰も驚きません。「トイ・ストーリー」ではおもちゃが当たり前のように動き出し、ジブリの「千と千尋の神隠し」でも千尋はさまざまな生き物や妖怪に出会います。

では技術的な面を比べてみましょう。ピクサーは実写と見間違えるほどのリアルな画を得意としていますが、ジブリの作品はインクやブラシを使った手描きのタッチを大切にします。「カールじいさんの空飛ぶ家」はピクサー初の3D映画ですが、今後もピクサーは3Dを取り入れた作品を製作していくと思われます。映画に欠かせない音楽に関しても、両者のこだわりが大いに感じられます。宮崎作品のほとんどの音楽は作曲家・久石譲により手がけられていて、もはや彼の音楽抜きにジブリ作品を語ることは出来ません。ピクサーのお抱え作曲家のランディ・ニューマンも、ロックやジャズなどさまざま音楽でピクサーの栄光の歴史を支えてきました。

このように、アニメーション界には大きな2つのレシピがあります。似たような材料から全く違う味わいが出るピクサーとジブリ、どちらも試食する価値ありですよ。